Will Co. keeps elected coroner

The Will County Board has decided against giving voters a chance to decide whether the elected coroner should be replaced by an appointed medical examiner.

The board had been examining the issue since last spring. However, some who voted Monday against the proposed switch said they did so because they didn't know the cost of switching to a medical examiner's office. Others said they didn't believe the system needed changing.

The proposal to switch from an elected coroner to an appointed medical examiner arose from the controversy sparked by the Drew Peterson investigation. Under Coroner Patrick O'Neil, a coroner's jury in 2004 ruled the death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, an accident.

Now, the former Bolingbrook police sergeant is a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, and Savio's case has been reopened as a murder investigation.